Hope from Fukushima

As we mark the second memorial of the March 11, 2011 triple disaster, we see tragedy, but also hope in Japan.

While people mourn for the mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents and children that were lost in the earthquake and tsunami, many of those that fled the natural disaster have been able to return home and rebuild their lives and communities as best they can.

The tragedy continues, however, for those still suffering from the impacts of radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear accident. Many areas remain uninhabitable, leaving 160,000 evacuees stuck in limbo, unable to go home, but also unable to rebuild their lives as they lack proper compensation and support.

Families and communities are breaking up, financial ruin is common, as is divorce and mental breakdowns. Recent estimates suggest cancer rates are likely to increase in Fukushima, which weighs heavily on people’s minds, and suicides are increasing in the area. It is untrue to say nobody has lost their lives as a result of the nuclear accident.

This ongoing tragedy for the victims of the nuclear disaster is the fault of a system that is supposed to provide fair compensation when there is a nuclear disaster, but doesn’t. This system essentially protects the nuclear industry, not people.

The cost of the Fukushima disaster is estimated at US$250 billion, but costs so far have already crushed owner TEPCO so badly it had to be nationalised. TEPCO is one of the largest energy utilities in the world, yet it had to be protected from its responsibilities. Taxpayers are now picking up the tab.

Worse still is that the system offers even greater protection to companies like General Electric, Hitachi and Toshiba. They built the Fukushima plant based on a flawed reactor design. Yet the regulations allow them to walk away and pay nothing to help victims. They also do not show much moral responsibility to help.

The big gap between the costs of a nuclear disaster and what the nuclear industry pays should make everyone angry.

This reality, like other painful truths about nuclear power, has hit home with many Japanese people. They are standing up in protest.

Last year I wrote about hope and the emerging “Hydrangea revolution”. Hundreds of thousands of protestors flooded the streets of Tokyo around the Prime Minister’s residence and the parliament. These protests continue, and the support for a total nuclear phase-out in Japan is growing.

People are angry, first at the previous government’s decision to restart a nuclear power plant after all were switched off following the Fukushima meltdowns, and now they are angry at the new government’s plans to restart more reactors, and to resume building them.

This mobilisation has already had some success, as only two of Japan’s reactors are currently online. The rest remain offline, and it will not be long until the lone two reactors working at the Ohi plant are once again shut down for maintenance, leaving Japan nuclear-free once more. We want an end to our disastrous experiment with nuclear power. We showed that we can live without it last summer, and we will do so again.

The hope coming out of Fukushima is that the people continue to speak out, loudly and clearly, about this man-made disaster, to speak out against nuclear power.

Over the last week they have again been joined by people in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, India, Jordan, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, and the USA calling for nuclear companies to be made responsible for the damage they can, and do, cause.

We cannot stop natural disasters, but we can prevent man-made ones.

We cannot give the people of Fukushima back what they have lost, but we can stand together and ensure they get compensated, that they are remembered, and that no one has to suffer through a nuclear meltdown ever again.

We hope that the Japanese government will listen to the voices of its people, stop talking about nuclear, and push renewables much harder.

Image: Greenpeace activists join tens of thousands of people marching on the Japanese parliament on March 10, 2013 in remembrance of the 2011 triple disaster in Fukushima , and to demand the Japanese government to abandon its dangerous nuclear programme.

I remember the surreal experience: streamed the Japan / "NHK World TV" video live over the Internet, and live-chatted with folks from Japan and around the world - including a retired GE Engineer Wayne Delacroix in Clifton Park, NY - commenting on what would blow next. Seems like just yesterday. I also remember the special music composed after the event by Ryuichi Sakamoto...

Dear Junichi,
Fukushima...desastrous effects were very very ferile for Anti-Nuclear all over the world. I do like the strategies of big energy, the way they dealt with this threat. By the way, industry in general is following the same path in terms of global heating.

Interesting how they seem to succeed, and how alternative forces do not even seem to notice what is going on.

Fukushima was the home-run given to the Energy-Revolution, and what did warriors of the rainbow do worldwide?

They sat down for having a pick-nick, and as far as I can judge, they still don't seem to have gotten up again.

Sun Wu, godfather of Rainbow Warrior III

PS: a question I wanted to ask you for a while already...you were arrested for something they called 'stealing' a few kgs of whalemeat...you became quite popular, known worldwide.

Soon afterwards you became Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan.

Question: would you have become Executive Director without having gotten popular on top of this whalemeat-thing prior?

I mean: HAVE YOU BEEN THE MOST CAPABLE person around, or was decision of making you Exectutive Director based on PR-reasons aswell?

Thank you so much Junichi, this is a really excellent post and heartfelt reflection. I Loved reading it and seeing your beautiful spirit through it a...

Thank you so much Junichi, this is a really excellent post and heartfelt reflection. I Loved reading it and seeing your beautiful spirit through it all. Your Love for your people and this earth is a human treasure, and a gift to us all. I'm grateful for the day Greenpeace has found you. Please don't pay any attention to Sun Wu. Poor man has a horrible life, ...hiding under a rock, coming out to spit at people and insult them, and then slinking down and hiding under his rock again. Pathetic, and really rude too Sun Wu.